


Defy the Stars

by equallydestructive



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Canon Compliant, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up, Humor, M/M, OT5 Friendship, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-20
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2018-02-09 14:07:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1985799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/equallydestructive/pseuds/equallydestructive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry's only wish in life is to stop walking in on Zayn and Liam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defy the Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ljps](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ljps/gifts).



Harry knows how it is to be in love, so when he sees Zayn and Liam, he can tell how much they are into each other. It’s sickeningly sweet, but Harry doesn’t ever want to impose upon them that they need to stop, because, well, it’s refreshing. After things became a bit rocky between Louis and himself, it was to be sure that Zayn and Liam, also known as Ziam, would become the number one most recognised “couple” in the band, as the fans would say. It still seems as though most of them assume that he and Louis are still together, which they are not, mind you, so many of the rather rabid fans haven’t exactly checked into Zayn and Liam’s relationship yet. 

Why is Harry even bothering to think about this? Easy. 

\----

The very first time that Harry made sense of something happening between Zayn and Liam was during the X-Factor days when they had lived in the house with all the other contestants. Yes, even over four years ago, they had made it pretty obvious. Harry, so disgustingly in love with Louis, had barely noticed. Nevertheless, certain things weren’t hard to miss.

Harry woke up at about 1 in the morning after a very late night with hunger pangs in his stomach, so he had grudgingly gotten out of bed from where Louis was still curled up next to him to pad downstairs to make himself a sandwich. That was when he heard it.

A low, undisguised moan echoed through the hallway and suddenly something had hit the wall – perhaps a body being thrown up against it. Harry couldn’t seem to pinpoint where the sound had come from, so he stopped short as his ears perked up, curious to see who could possibly be making out at this incredibly late, or early, hour. There was another groan and Harry figured that it came from the bathroom that was at the end of the hall. He tiptoed down the carpeted hallway and came to a stop in front of the door where the rustle of cloth was heard through the thin wood and a grunt, this time much louder due to Harry’s proximity to the door, had Harry knocking on the door twice. 

“You do know it’s like the crack of dawn, right?” Harry asked, bemusement making a smile curve its way onto his face. A throat cleared and the door cracked open as Liam stuck his head out. His hair was disheveled and his cheeks had a flush to them that Harry knew was absolutely not from the heat, so his grin only grew wider.

“So, uh, who you have in there with you?” Harry smirked. “Unless you’re just making a lot of noise in there by yourself, which is highly unlikely.”

Liam’s eyes flitted around, not quite meeting Harry’s eyes. “There’s no one in here?” he said, his voice rising into a question. 

“Why are you asking me?” Harry pressed a hand against the door, fully intent on learning just who it was Liam was fooling around with. 

“U-uhm,” Liam stammered as Harry finally pushed the door open all the way, only to find that the bathroom was empty, save for the blushing Liam that had stood back. Harry’s eyebrows knitted together as he took in the room, thinking that he was going to find someone, maybe even someone he knew.

“So you’re in here by yourself?”

Liam’s head bobbed up and down, but he still wouldn’t meet Harry’s unwavering gaze. A few moments passed and suddenly Harry hears a covered sneeze from behind the shower curtain. Harry crooked his head at Liam, and instead of asking who could possibly be in the bathtub, he stepped to the shower and grabbed ahold of the curtain.

“No, wait!”

Harry turned to look at Liam, still holding onto the curtain. Liam had his arm outreached as if to grasp Harry by the scruff to haul him back, but he let it hang back down at his side as he stared at the ground rather sheepishly. 

“H-Harry, can you please leave? I’m trying to take a piss and you’re not helping,” Liam said, finally looking up with a pleading expression.

“Oh, alright.” Harry unwrapped his fingers from the shower curtain and took a step back. “I’ll leave you to it.”

He heard a sigh of relief from behind him, but curiosity, and perhaps just the desire to get Liam all flustered, took over. His hand shot out for the curtain again and he pulled it to the side, finding himself looking down at a half-naked Zayn Malik. 

“Zayn?” 

The boy in question scrambled up, nearly falling back down when his feet slipped in the tub. He scratched at the back of his head, mouth hanging open as his harried gaze flicked between Harry and Liam. “This isn’t what it looks like,” Zayn said, his usual nonchalant composure cracking. “I was just taking a bath.” He grabbed at a bottle of shampoo, flicked the cap open, and dumped the contents on his head, humming loudly as he scrubbed it into his dry hair. “See?”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, okay.”

Though Harry couldn’t see him, Liam, from his spot behind Harry, gesticulated wildly at Zayn with wide eyes, wanting him to get out of the tub, but of course, Zayn didn’t figure it out and instead kept speaking as if Harry hadn’t already worked it all out.

“I was just talking to Liam,” Zayn chattered, continuing to rub in the shampoo, “about the dance moves that we have to learn.”

Harry nodded along, his knowing smirk continuing to grow as Zayn began getting red in the face, a trait that didn’t grace him all that often unless he was really, really embarrassed. After a few more minutes of Zayn’s constant rambling, this time talking about the dog he wanted to get, Harry decided to cut it short.

“Listen,” Harry began, turning around to gesture Liam towards where Zayn was still standing in the tub. “You’re really not fooling me, so tell me – are you guys, you know,” Harry paused dramatically, “shagging?”

Zayn gulped. “Well, no, not exactly,” he started. “We’ve made out a lot and I once got Liam off, but that’s about it.” 

“Yeah, it’s not like you and Louis,” Liam added helpfully. Harry scowled at him, but remained silent. Harry knew that Louis wasn’t exactly the quietest when he came, either from fucking down on Harry’s dick or from Harry’s mouth around Louis’ own, so it wasn’t really a surprise that they had probably heard them going at it once or twice.

“I mean, we’re teenage boys, so we’re horny all the time,” Zayn said, paying special attention to his fingers. “What’s wrong with playing around?”

“There isn’t anything wrong with that, it’s just that it’s like, really fucking early.” Harry’s body suddenly remembered that it was indeed incredibly early in the morning and Harry yawned widely. “Why are you guys even up making out now? Couldn’t you have waited a few more hours?”

Liam shrugged. “Zayn couldn’t sleep.” 

“Don’t you two share a room? Why bother coming down to the bathroom of all places?”

Liam smiled cheekily at Harry. “Nobody’s bedrooms are downstairs so we can be as loud as we want.”

Harry scoffed, feeling a bit irritable from the sleep that he wasn’t going to get. “Go the fuck to bed.”

Liam raised his hands up, palms facing towards Harry in mock surrender. “Yes, sir.” He winked at Harry and grabbed for Zayn’s hand, tugging him out of the bathtub and through the door. Harry grumbled something about “fucking wankers” and Liam popped his head in, that same stupid smile still on his face. “What was that?”

“Oh, nothing.”

\----

The second time that Harry caught them was when they were touring for the Up All Night album that they had released in late 2011, and actually, now that Harry thinks about it, he is pretty sure that most of the fans that were even bothering to look at the stage had seen what had happened. 

The boys, namely Zayn and Liam, had been very frisky the entire night and the fans had began to pick up on it, screaming out any time one of them touched each other. Harry smiled at the crowd as he sang his part in What Makes You Beautiful, the last song of the night, when a particularly loud roar from the crowd had him turn to see that Zayn had unbuttoned his shirt and had flipped it back while staring menacingly at Liam. Liam’s eyed Zayn and then he suddenly grabbed Zayn by the hips, flipping him around so he could wrap his arms around Zayn’s thin waist. He pulled Zayn and himself to the back where Liam, as he would tell Harry later when he questioned it, thought that they wouldn’t be seen. He gave a savage rut into Zayn’s ass and Zayn’s legs flew everywhere as Liam’s arms tightened around him, continuing to quite literally dry-hump Zayn, his breathing becoming ragged. 

Harry made the decision that ignoring the two of them would be the best option, so with his heart hammering in fear of what management could say about his friends’ behaviour, he made a joke to divert the crowd’s attention and it seemed to have worked when simultaneous laughter rose up. 

After they had gotten back to the changing rooms, Louis really let loose. “What the fuck did you two think you were doing?” he practically screamed as Zayn cowered behind Liam. “Fucking humping?! You do realise that everyone could see what was happening?” Louis paced the room, shaking off Harry’s hand whenever he placed it on Louis’ shoulder. “Christ, you guys.” He sat down on the sofa, shoving his face into his hands. 

“Lou, maybe it won’t be that bad,” Harry coaxed, sitting down beside Louis and rubbing soothing fingers across his upper back. Louis relaxed into the touch and rested heavily into Harry’s side. 

“Of course it will be,” Louis grumbled, his face pressed into Harry’s neck, though the fight seemed to have gone out of him. 

“Look, Lou, I’m sorry,” Liam said shamefully. “I got carried away, I know. We were all really on edge and, well-“ Liam stopped speaking at Louis’ murderous glare. 

“I’m just afraid of what management is going to say once they catch word of this,” Niall piped up from his perch on the arm of the sofa. 

“I doubt they’ll do anything.”

Everyone turned to look at Harry, who had remained mostly quiet through much of the conversation. He straightened up and put an arm across Louis’ small shoulders. “No, seriously. I have a feeling that they’re just going to pretend like this never happen and we’ll just continue with the rest of the tour-”

“How are you so sure?” Niall interjected. “You don’t really get how they work.”

“I knew that we should never have signed that contract.” Harry jumped at the sound of Zayn’s voice right by his ear and he turned to see that he had sat down next to Harry with Liam on the other side of him. 

“Well, it’s too late now.” Harry gnawed on his bottom lip. “So, what do you guys think we should do?”

“Leave it alone, I guess,” Liam said, kicking back and slinging an arm around Zayn’s waist. 

“You seem oddly calm about this,” Louis sneered, obviously still angry about what had happened.

“Honestly Louis, what can management actually do? Like, they can’t just stop us from hanging out with each other or interacting on stage. That’s bullshit.” Louis grimaced at Liam’s answer, but instead of replying with a snarky comment like he usually would, he brought his legs up and wrapped his arms around his knees, closing his eyes.

“Fuck, fine, fine. We’ll just leave it alone.” Louis opened his eyes and fiercely glared at Zayn. “But I swear to God,” his gaze shifted over to Liam, “if this happens again, I will fucking kill both of you.”

\----

The third time is probably most prominent in Harry’s mind because this was the time when he had found them in the act of actually having sex, like, full-blown sex. How he manages to be the only one to catch them is the one thing that constantly goes through Harry’s mind, but he chooses not to question it as it just seems to happen regardless.

Just like the very first time, Harry had woken up in the middle of the night in his bunk on the tour bus, the urge to pee coiling in his gut. It was during the Take Me Home Tour when they were on the American leg and since it was during the summer, it was hot as hell so the boys and much of the crew had taken to being shirtless almost 24/7. Harry, who liked to be naked all the time, was happy about this, so in the nights when it was really hot he would just strip completely naked, lying underneath the thin sheets with his privates covered because well, he had some decency, if it was to be compared to a few years back.

He jumped down from his bed, not really caring about how much noise he made upon landing, and he padded down the small alleyway to the bathroom, but not without hearing a small whimper from someone that probably didn’t want anyone to hear come from the bunk across from Niall’s. _Jesus Christ_ , Harry thought as he snuck closer to the bunk in question, listening in on what was going on behind that thin curtain separating the bunk and the rest of the bus. He bent down in front of it, the familiar crease in between his eyebrows becoming notable as he settled down to listen.

“Zayn, please!” The choked gasp caught in Liam’s, Harry assumed, throat as a few squeaks came from the ratty mattress Harry bit at his lip, trying to keep his own noises in after feeling his cock twitch at the sound. He cursed inwardly when it began to swell and he pressed a palm down on it, attempting to relieve the pressure, but it only resulted in Harry letting out a small groan. Luckily Liam had opened his mouth to moan at the same time, so it was highly unlikely that they had heard Harry. He took his hand off his crotch and crawled a bit closer, wanting to see what exactly it was that they were doing. The slap of skin against skin was soft, but distinguishable, and Harry pulled the curtain aside. 

Zayn was on top of Liam and though Harry couldn’t see it, he knew that his dick was definitely in Liam, and Liam’s chest was heaving, drops of sweat beading at his temples.

“Shit, Harry!” Zayn hissed, quickly pulling out of Liam, who had closed his eyes before Harry had intruded. Zayn rolled to the side, throwing a blanket over the two of them, then he proceeded to glare at Harry.

“I always thought that Liam would be the one topping, not you.”

Zayn’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water and it was clear that he had no idea what to say except, “what the fuck” over and over again.

Harry snorted. “Couldn’t you like, have waited until we were all out of the tour bus because I mean, any of us,” he pointed at himself, “could wake up and hear you fucking.”

“I thought you were asleep!” Zayn groused, his face flushing. “We hadn’t done anything in a while, so I had mentioned it to Liam before-“

“Dude, we literally shagged last night,” Liam mumbled, his voice still a bit hoarse. “Remember? I made you come like three times just from you riding me-“

“Okay!” Harry said loudly. “Anyways, could you guys keep it in your pants for the time being? Jesus.” With that, he grinned at them and closed the curtain, quickly walking to the bathroom for a piss and perhaps even a violent wank because, well, when two of your very attractive band mates are blatantly having sex in the same room as you, it’s kind of difficult not to get hard.

\----

The fourth and most recent time that Harry caught them was after the 2014 Brit Awards.

At the awards, Liam was on the verge of getting completely pissed and Harry had already chastised him once after catching him taking a large gulp of wine from where he thought he was hidden behind the rest of the boys; it looked like Harry was going to have to do it again.

Harry grabbed the glass from Liam’s hand and put a firm hand on his shoulder.

“Are you crazy? We’re at a damn awards ceremony and you’re drinking?” he whispered harshly. Liam only grinned crookedly and Harry smacked a palm against his forehead. “Christ, what am I going to do with you?”

“Well, I dunno about you, but after this I’m going to go back to Zayn’s and suck his-”

Harry blanched. “No, no, I don’t need to hear about your nightly adventures with Zayn. Just put the fucking drink down and at the very least pretend like you’re sober.” Liam pouted and crossed his arms, clearly waiting for Harry to say something else. “What?”

“Say please,” he said, words slurring slightly. Harry sighed heavily. 

“Please.”

“See, now was that so hard?” Liam giggled happily and bounced off to where Niall was having a deep conversation with Louis, what with all the hand gestures he was throwing out. Harry shook his head wearily and walked to Zayn, who was watching Liam with a sharp eye, making sure he doesn’t make too much of a fool out of himself. Unlike Liam, though, Zayn had not had one sip of alcohol the entire night, thankfully - less work for Harry.

“What’s up, mate?” Harry clapped a large hand across Zayn’s back and Zayn flinched, having been so focused on Liam that he hadn’t noticed Harry approach him, though he still stared off in Liam’s direction. Harry followed his eyes to see Liam throwing an arm around Niall’s waist, laughing loudly as he gave Niall a noogie. 

“I worry about him,” Zayn murmured, almost too quietly for Harry to hear. “Like, he has that one bad kidney, and sometimes Liam will drink too much, not like now, but like- sometimes he blacks out and I’m so afraid that one of these days he’s not going to wake up.” Harry turned a bit to face at Zayn, who was still watching Liam interacting with the others, but his eyes were glazed over. 

“I don’t think he would do that to you,” Harry comforted, letting one of his hands card through Zayn’s black hair. “He knows his limits.” Zayn finally looked at Harry.

“Yeah, I hope so.” 

Harry was used to comforting the others in times of strife. Even though he was the youngest of the group, he still acted like the perfect older sibling to all of them, even Liam, who he knew had the “Daddy” role secured. He bent down a bit to kiss the top of Zayn’s head, but he suddenly remembered that they were in a public setting and instead settled for patting him gently on top of his head. Zayn smiled softly at him, knowing exactly what he was going to do and he punched Harry’s arm.

“Thanks, Harry.” 

After the longest few hours of his life, albeit them being some of the best, he and the rest of the crew got into their respective cars and drove to Zayn’s flat where they were going to have dinner made by, as it was decided, Harry. 

“Shit, Harry, this is delicious,” Niall said, giving a corn-encrusted smile before stuffing his face again. Harry grimaced from where he was washing dishes at the sink. Louis had told them that he had to go back to his place despite the complaints of his bandmates. Niall had said something about Louis being “salty” because of his and Harry’s recent falling out, but Louis had told him to fuck off - of course it was without malice because even though Louis was an asshole, he wouldn’t deliberately make Niall sad - and left anyway. Harry had shrugged it off though inside he was feeling a bit twisted, but he wasn’t about to make that known to the rest of the boys, especially Zayn and Liam, who were still just as in love as they were before. Speaking of which-

“Where are Zayn and Liam?” Niall asked, mouth still partially full. Harry wiped his hands on the towel hanging from the oven door and he turned around, expecting to see the two of them being gross with each other across the table from Niall, but they were nowhere to be seen.

“I’m not sure. I’ll go look.” He took off his apron and walked along the side of the table, giving Niall’s hair a quick ruffle in the process and receiving a squeal of protest in response. He chuckled and traveled down the hallway, beginning to hum the tune to Story of My Life out of habit. “Zayn?” he called out, knocking a few times on the bathroom door. “Liam?” He continued down the hallway and at the end of it there was a door that was firmly shut with a “come in” sign on the doorknob. He clenched his teeth, tensing himself for what he was probably going to find, and pushed the door open. To his surprise, the room was completely empty, save for Zayn’s dog, Hatchi, sleeping on the bed. He shrugged and walked in, heading straight for the bed where Hatchi was stretching, his little mouth widening in a yawn. 

“Hi, Hatchi,” Harry cooed, stroking the dog’s soft fur. The little dog wagged his tail and he got up from his spot on Zayn’s pillow to curl up in Harry’s lap, yawning once more. Harry continued to pet Hatchi, his focus on the dog not alerting him to the muffled sound of a groan coming straight from the closet. It was only when there was a loud bang on the door that Harry looked up, groaning inwardly. “For fuck’s sake,” he growled to himself, picking Hatchi up and placing him on the bed next to him. The dog looked vaguely miffed, but he gave a sniff and closed his eyes. Harry stood up and stomped loudly to the closet doors, fully intent on yelling at Zayn and Liam about not having “proper guest etiquette” or something along the lines of that. Harry heard a low “shhh” come from within and he rolled his eyes.

“Seriously? I can hear you guys. Give it up.” Harry waited a few moments for the idiots to step out, but they didn’t seem to even want to. Harry tapped his foot impatiently and he threw his arms up, stating, “Fine, I’ll leave you guys to it.” He stomped a few times, making his steps lighter, and right away he heard someone whisper, “Is he gone?” before the banging started up again. “Yeah, right there, Liam,” Zayn moaned and Liam gave a grunt in response before the sounds of slurping began. 

Harry had enough. He took a large step to the closet door and flung it open, his eyes feasting upon the sight of Liam holding Zayn up against the wall, fucking into him with earnest. He let out a gasp when he saw Harry staring at him from the opening of the closet and he quickly put down Zayn, covering himself up with some clothing that was hanging in the closet. 

“I thought you had left!” Liam squawked, throwing another piece of fabric at Zayn, who had slid to the floor and was covering his privates with slightly tremulous hands. 

Harry chose to ignore him. “You do realise that you’re shagging in the closet? Like, you two are actual walking idioms.” Suddenly, a huge grin split his face as the force of the words he just said hit him. “Holy shit, you guys just came out of the closet. Literally.” Zayn and Liam shared a concerned glance as Harry doubled over, his hands on his knees as he laughed, snorts coming from him every few seconds and tears beginning to form in his eyes.

“Harry, it’s not really that funny,” Zayn said slowly, taking careful steps around the chortling Harry to grab his clothes from their place on the windowsill. Liam still stood halfway out of the closet, staring down at Harry, an expression of pure amusement playing on his features. He grabbed a pair of Zayn’s pants from where there’s a stack in the closet and pulled them on before bending down to grasp Harry under the armpits, hoisting him up. 

“Come on, bro, let’s get you some coffee before you pass out.”

You see, Harry has to deal with a lot of shit for someone his age, but this is definitely one of the things that he really hopes he doesn’t have to subject himself to. 

That being said, his only wish in life is to stop walking in on Zayn and Liam.

**Author's Note:**

> So I got a prompt from one of my buds and she said she wanted me to talk about how gross Liam and Zayn are backstage, but I kind of made it a bit different from the original, so this whole thing came to light. I like the idea of Harry constantly catching Ziam in the act, but after four years of dealing with it, he basically just accepts it as being a part of his life.  
> To be honest, I really want that to actually be the case.


End file.
